I need to examine this further, but as I sit here now I do not buy that LotR is
a critique of modernization in any way but the least obvious -- that it
completely and utterly ignores modernity. The Shire is not the kind of
modernity Tolkien despised at all. And I do not believe the Ring,
Saruman, or Sauron were meant to resemble robot factories or 20th Century war
machines either. These are the theories Tolkien rejected in his forward
to the second edition.
And for the fifth time, I concede that the hobbits are not literally
time-travellers. I just believe that since Tolkien uses Victorian
settings and language to portray that which was familiar to hobbits, and
increasingly ancient settings and language to describe the unfamiliar, there is
a certain similarity to time travel. But it is not literally time
travel.
OK?
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"‘I think he was a silly little man,' said Councillor Tompkins. ‘Worthless, in fact; no use to Society at all.'
"‘Oh, I don't know,' said Atkins, who was nobody of importance, just a schoolmaster. ‘I am not so sure: it depends on what you mean by use .'
"‘No practical or economic use,' said Tompkins. . . .
. . .
"‘It is proving very useful indeed,' said the Second Voice. ‘As a holiday, and a refreshment. It is splendid for convalescence; and not only for that, for many it is the best introduction to the Mountains. It works wonders in some cases. I am sending more and more there. They seldom have to come back.'"
